


An Apology

by ShadowHaloedAngel



Series: Kisses [4]
Category: Ocean's 8 (2018)
Genre: Current Debbie/Lou, F/F, Friends With Benefits, Friendship/Love, Girls Kissing, Tammy's separated, it's complicated - Freeform, kind of, past Debbie/Lou/Tammy
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-08-06
Updated: 2019-08-06
Packaged: 2020-08-10 20:14:59
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,389
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20141341
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ShadowHaloedAngel/pseuds/ShadowHaloedAngel
Summary: Debbie needs a fence, and really there aren't that many names on the list. At this point, there's only one, and they go back a long way. Debbie's confident that she can get Tammy on board, but there are some apologies that need to be made first, and really, when it matters, she's never been all that good with words.Tammy's recruitment scene, with a bonus at the end.





	An Apology

_"What about Tammy?"_

Honestly from the outside the house is the picture of suburbia and all the ideals that entails. Equally honestly it actually makes Debbie's skin crawl a little bit. It all feels that little bit too perfect, that little bit Stepford Wife. There's a pool outside, and acres of garden, and the siding is clean, and she doesn't belong here. This isn't her world. She might not be one hundred percent confident as to where her world is right now, but this isn't it. The city's in her blood, grimy streets of traffic in her veins and skyscrapers in her eyes, and this feels a little too much like the opening to a horror movie. Idly she tries to remember whether Tammy's kids have eerily blonde hair and blue eyes. With their mother it's not out of the question. 

Debbie's not really a fan of classic horror anyway. That's more Lou's department, but then they spent hours and days and years curled up on the couch together while Debbie peered between spread fingers and tucked herself closer into Lou's side, inhaling the scent of her while Lou gave her affectionately exasperated looks and wrapped her arm a little tighter.

She can see the garage, and honestly she would have expected a better security system than this. After all, it's not like Tammy doesn't know how the game works, but maybe out here it isn't so necessary anymore. Debbie knows first hand that isolation doesn't guarantee you peace though. But she's retired now, of course. 

~

Tammy is trying to focus on making sure everything ends up in the blender and flinching every time she hears Derek's football bang against the wall. This is her routine, and she enjoys it, really. She has to keep telling herself that. She loves her husband, she loves her house, she loves her kids... and something that had started as a mid-afternoon treat for herself after taking care of the housework has become a little bastion of sanity since James left. She knows he's happier now. They both are really. It's new and recent and they're still trying to figure out how all of this is going to work, but he's not trying to live a lie anymore and it's better for both of them. They're still friends. That doesn't change the fact that she's been left with the bulk of the childcare and everything else though, at least full-time. 

Right now though the constant assault on her senses is giving her a headache. 

"Hey buddy? Can you do me a favour? Can you take that outside?"

She does her best to keep her tone sunny and positive, because it isn't fair on the kids to let her frustration bleed through. She's under no illusions about being the perfect parent all the time, everyone is human after all, but if she can keep things in check it makes it more effective when she does get angry and helps the kids learn when to take things seriously. 

She bites back a curse because that was more protein than she meant to add but it's not like she can take it back now. She sighs and is about to put the lid on and press pulse when her phone rings. She grabs it without a second thought, but she does a double take when she sees the name on the screen. 

"Debbie, I am with my family, I told you-"

"I'm outside."

"What?"

"I'm in your garage."

Tammy sighs and lets her eyes close for a moment, because really the last thing she needs now is more complications and yet... that's what Debbie is good at, after all. That's all her old life ever really was. Complications. And still, she goes. 

~

Honestly Debbie wasn't all that surprised by the racks of merchandise in the garage. The boxes of pristine sodastreams, the bikes on the wall which were stored carefully out of the way but undoubtedly too big for Tammy's kids to ride yet. Debbie knew she'd been away but not /that/ long. It was like a little Aladdin's cave, and it was the confirmation she needed that maybe Tammy's retirement wasn't as absolute as she liked to pretend. 

There was an addiction to it. Debbie understood that. There's an adrenaline rush when a job goes right, and it's just a fact that Tammy had been one of the best. It's not the kind of thing that's easy to give up, even with the best intentions.

It's still interesting seeing the juxtaposition between domesticity and the obvious proceeds of criminality. She spots a jar of candy that's obviously out here for treats when the kids have been good and helps herself to a lollipop. Hey, she's only here because of good behaviour, right? She's earned a goddamn lollipop.

When Tammy walks in through the door, peering around the racks, keeping a careful eye on the door to make sure neither Derek nor Keri is following her, it does make Debbie stop in her tracks. It's like flashing back twenty years into the past and honestly Tammy barely looks a day older. She's still beautiful, and there's a little ache behind Debbie's ribs she tries to ignore as she realises quite how much she missed Tammy too. She'd always known she was missing Lou, accepted it, admitted it, felt it like the loss of a limb, but the other relationships she'd lost while inside... those had been harder to mourn.

"Deb?" Footsteps on the concrete, then again, in a half-whisper that's definitely got echoes of mom in it as Tammy appears on the other side of the gap in the shelf Debbie is standing in front of, literally caught with her hand in the candy jar and the sucker between her lips. "Deb, what are you doing here? I thought you were in jail!"

"Mmm... I got out."

She tries to play it cool, but honestly Tammy probably knows her too well for that really, and so instead she moves to deflection tactics as Tammy walks around the end of the shelf. 

"Look at all this... thought you retired?"

A brief pause, and Tammy can't really cover herself quite as well as she used to. Then again, Tammy had never really done the frontline work, she had just been very good at moving things around, whether that was relocating what Lou and Debbie acquired or finding things for them in the first place. That required a fierce logistical mind for certain, one that Debbie was sure was invaluable for parenting, but it didn't necessarily require the same flair for acting as what she was used to. 

"I did!"

"Not as exciting as hijacking trucks that are smuggling dishwashers from Canada right?"

She sets the jar of candy aside and prowls out from where she's been waiting. It is a prowl, but it's subconscious all the same. In the old days, a very long time ago, it had been her and Lou, and then her and Lou and Tammy, and then her and Lou again. Sometimes a little bit of that old dynamic flairs up, something that bled into the foundations of the friendship, and seeing Tammy again has brought it all rushing back. 

Tammy is retreating as she advances, but Debbie's watching her eyes and there's no sign of her looking for a way out. Tammy has always been able to find one of those when she needs one. 

"Well I told you I don't do that anymore."

"But you were so very good at it."

"Thank you..."

Debbie pokes a few of the bikes hanging up on the wall as Tammy finally sets her feet and her shoulders and stands her ground, ending her tactical retreat and bringing a halt to Debbie's advance. 

"So these are all for personal use, right?"

"What do you want?"

"Just wanna... just wanna reconnect..."

"Oh yeah? Reconnect?"

"You're not bored out here are you Tim-Tam?"

It was Lou who'd originally come up with the nickname, a kind of cookie whose virtues she'd extol to anyone willing to listen which was apparently an Australian delicacy. Debbie had hunted down a packet once for an early anniversary gift and she had to admit they weren't bad. Really though it was more about Lou's reaction to them. 

"NO, no I'm not... not bored out here at all, no... why... why would you ask that?"

Tammy's backed up against some boxes now and Debbie's closing the gap between them, eyes still on Tammy's face. 

She could have run, she could have called the police, she could have not picked up the phone or slammed the door in Debbie's face, but there is a lot of history between them and that is what Debbie is relying on right now because there is nobody she would really rather have on the team than Tammy. She needs the best, after all, even if that does mean coaxing some of them out of retirement. 

"Because I need a fence."

There's a beat while Tammy watches her back, and when she speaks again Debbie honestly isn't sure who Tammy is trying to convince more, herself or Debbie.

"Well I told you I don't do that anymore. I'm out."

"It's a big job."

"I don't care."

"Do you want me to tell you how big the job is?"

"No, no I really don't."

"Think I'm gonna tell you how big the job is..."

And Debbie leans in to whisper in her ear and even as Tammy sighs she's turning to let her, unable to resist this temptation just yet, and when Debbie leans in she can smell Tammy's shampoo and her perfume and her laundry detergent all overlaying the familiar scent which was once as much a part of her life as Lou's was. She allows herself to close her eyes for a moment as she whispers the pertinent facts, then steps back to let them sink in, back in absolute control of the situation, the way she always is. 

There's a long pause while Tammy just watches her, searching Debbie's face for any hint of a lie. 

"...Are you kidding?"

"No."

"MOMMY!"

The peremptory voice comes from the open door into the house and Tammy closes her eyes as her worlds collide with a muttered "shit." She instantly shoves Debbie to one side, making sure the taller woman is behind the boxes and out of any potential sightline of the door. 

"WHEN'S DINNER READY?"

Tammy gestures at Debbie while she tries to resolve the situations, flapping at her to keep quiet. Debbie has no intention of saying anything at all but she's quite enjoying this nonetheless. 

"Sweetheart I will be right there, I- I'm so sorry Mommy will be right there."

"But I'm HUNGRY!"

"I know sweetheart, I- sweetheart I promise I will be right there."

They hear the footsteps of the kid's retreat, and finally Tammy lets out the breath she was holding and turns to Debbie with a look on her face. 

"Thanks a lot."

"She sounds sweet..."

Tammy lets herself fall back against the boxes they're both leaning on and breathe. Debbie takes another opportunity to look around the place. It's really quite impressive. 

"...How do you explain all this to your husband?"

Tammy hesitates, not because Debbie mentioned James but because... well it had never really been her strong suit covering it up in the first place, and now she's coming to realise that maybe the reason he accepted the lie so easily is because he had his own things on his mind. Dragging it out into the light of day now it's surprising it lasted as long as it did.

"...Ebay?"

Debbie shrugs and nods. Makes sense. She takes a moment there in that suburban garage, leaning against a stack of boxes containing god knows what but she's pretty sure no mom, no matter how coupon savvy or how much they're planning against the future needs so many of it either way, and takes in Tammy. Tammy who has grown and changed in the best ways since they met so many years ago, Tammy who has become more herself, but who honestly maybe needs this job to come along as a reminder of what she can do. Debbie loves her, really, if she's honest with herself, and more than anything she wants Tammy to be happy. If she were really happy in this panelled white house with its yard and its pool and her preppy alice band in her hair, then Debbie knows she would leave right now and never come back... but all the little tells Tammy never really learned to hide are screaming that she isn't happy here. 

"...Anyway. You know about the job now, you've got my number... you've got Lou's too. I hear you two kept in touch."

"Some, yeah."

Tammy is watching her now and Debbie's still close, even as she's pulling away to leave, lips stained cherry red by the lollipop, and it's on impulse that she leans in, pressing a kiss to Tammy's lips that tries to say everything Debbie can't, to communicate that she loves her, that she missed her, that she's sorry for how things went, for the way she disappeared, for ending up in prison, for all the things she broke... and that she's sorry for turning up now if she's unwelcome. 

Tammy leans into it, just for a moment, welcoming it like old times as her eyes close and she kisses Debbie back, tasting like forgiveness. There's a lot that's passed between them, and this friendship is complicated at times, but when it comes down to it she'll always have Debbie's back. And this job could make life an awful lot easier. Besides, it'll be good for James to have a taste of full-time parenting for a few weeks. 

When the kiss breaks Debbie steps back, a bittersweet smile on her face, and Tammy presses her fingers to her lips even as she raises her other hand in farewell, watching her leave in silence. There's nothing else really that needs to be said between them. 

She takes a moment for her heart to stop racing before she heads back into the house. Dinner for the kids, and then she has some calls to make. It feels good to be back in the game.


End file.
